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Hot new releases and under-the-radar gems for adults and kids.
Staff Pick
Cyril Avery's story starts before his birth, when his unwed mother is banished from her small Irish village, and sweeps through the following decades with epic force. Every character is deftly drawn, and the story is starkly brutal, darkly humorous and downright heartbreaking. I made the mistake of starting this right before a cross-country trip, and had to lug 592 pages along with me, foregoing any sightseeing for a quiet place to read. I finished it in the airport and probably worried fellow travelers with the weeping. This is one heck of a big, fabulous book. Recommended By Kathi K., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man’s life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery — or at least, that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?
Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.
In this, Boyne’s most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.
Review
"With quick strokes and bitter humor, Boyne’s opening scene encapsulates the Irish church’s hypocrisy… Boyne continues his crusading ways with the quiet keening of this painful, affecting novel." Kirkus (starred review)
Review
"This is nothing less than the story of Ireland over the past 70 years, expressed in the life of one man…highly entertaining and often very funny…Big and clever." The Times Sunday Review
Review
"An epic full of verve, humour and heart… sure to be read by the bucketload… deeply cinematic [and] extremely funny." The Irish Times
Review
"A picaresque, lolloping odyssey for the individual characters and for the nation that confines them…The book blazes with anger as it commemorates lives wrecked by social contempt and self‑loathing…. a substantial achievement." The Guardian
Review
"Bleak, bittersweet, and Irish to the bone… explore[s] the relationship between Catholicism and patriarchy in midcentury Ireland and beyond." O, The Oprah Magazine
Synopsis
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he?
Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.
In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.
About the Author
John Boyne is an Irish novelist, born in 1971. His first short story was published in 1993 in the Sunday Tribune and was shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award. He is the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Knock Down Ginger, Noah Barleywater Runs Away, and The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket. His books have been translated into over 50 languages. He lives in Dublin.
John Boyne on PowellsBooks.Blog
John Boyne has enjoyed a successful writing career that began in his early 20s, and now, nearly 20 years later, boasts 11 adult novels and 5 young adult novels, most notably
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is perhaps this breadth of experience that inspired him to turn a black mirror on ambition and the publishing world...
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John Boyne on PowellsBooks.Blog
On the day of the marriage equality referendum in Ireland in May 2015, a news report in Ireland included an interview with an elderly man emerging from a polling station with tears rolling down his face. When asked why he was reacting so emotionally to having cast his vote he looked directly into the lens and said: “Because it’s too late for me. But..."
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